Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Boyhood Rebellion and Growing Up
The Hypocrisy of Adult Society
Superstition, Fantasy, and Escape
Showing Off
Sentimentality and Realism
Summary
Analysis
Tom wakes before the others. He makes predictions about what is going to happen in the future based on the various behaviors of the bugs and animals he observes around him.
Tom reassures himself through his superstitions when the untamed wilderness might otherwise scare him.
Themes
Joe and Huck wake, feeling wonderful. No one cares that the raft has drifted away.
Rather than see themselves as stranded, the boys re-envision their situation through their imaginations, deciding they have heroically escaped.
Themes
They fish for breakfast and continue to explore the island. Pangs of homesickness set in as the day wears on. Even Huck misses the village.
Because the boys aren't real homicidal outlaws like Injun Joe, they can't help but feel an attachment to the society they've left. Huck's longing to be back in St. Petersburg suggest that attachment to a community is natural, and that there is no real escape from it.
Themes
Hearing cannons, they run to the river to see the ferry and boats traveling by, searching. They realize that the people of the town think that they have drowned and are searching the river for their bodies. They are excited and delighted to be so missed.
The boys' excitement about the attention their disappearance is receiving shows their selfish childishness but also how much they care about how much their society, the village, cares about them..
Themes
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Once the others are asleep, Tom gathers up some of his treasures and sets out for the river.
In setting out alone in the unknown darkness, Tom naively believes his good luck charms will protect him.
Themes
